Lee B

Copied from Accounting Today: "The Trump administration’s fiscal year 2019 budget proposal includes increasing oversight of paid tax preparers along with more authority for the Internal Revenue Service. The budget proposes $11.1 billion in base funding for the IRS, including $2.3 billion for running key tax filing and compliance IT applications and $110 million for IT modernization efforts. The budget also requests additional funds for new and continuing investments to expand and strengthen the enforcement of the tax laws. “Taxpayers are increasingly turning to paid tax return preparers to assist them in meeting their tax filing obligations,” said the budget document. “Ensuring that these preparers understand the tax code would help taxpayers get higher quality service and prevent unscrupulous tax preparers from exploiting the system and vulnerable taxpayers"

They say they are still waiting on the IRS.

ATXWendi reposted this this morning: "You may want to call into customer support to have them address this issue. The section 179 limits have been dropped from Fixed Assets. If you are comfortable, this KB link from last year gives the steps to correct the issue (substitute 2017 in place of 2016), but it involves deleting program files so they can be re-downloaded. These are the steps customer service will do for you if you call in. https://support.cch.com/sfs/solution/000057508 Alternatively, you can type in the limits, but they will then be treated as overrides and may not update if we have to issue updates (which happens as the states legislate in the spring). The limits are in Fixed Assets, Asset Global Settings for federal and then click on the State Calcs tab for the state data" Apparently update 17.3 did not fix all of the Form 4562 problems !

Try turning off your firewall and security programs to see if it makes a difference. If it helps, then exclude all ATX Files from the scrutiny of your firewall and your security programs.

That's been a recurring problem for some users for the last 2 or 3 years. Basically due to sloppy programming, the ATX program fills up your print cache with garbage. When your print cache overflows, the program crashes. By rebooting your computer your print cache is cleared allowing the program to work again. If you know how, you can clear your print cache without rebooting.

I do remember reading a Tax Court Case where the employee was required by his employer to keep parts and supplies in his garage so that his first customer service call did not require him to go to the employer's shop. In this case the taxpayer prevailed and it was not commuting, so make sure you ask questions and make sure you have all the facts.

Oregon is very similar to Delaware except that it does increase the standard deduction, although it is still very low. I often do Oregon returns for the high school children of clients who didn't make enough to file a federal return.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Equifax is still in a CYA mode: "However, Atlanta-based Equifax Inc. recently disclosed in a document submitted to the Senate Banking Committee, that a forensic investigation found criminals accessed other information from company records. According to the document, provided to The Associated Press by Sen. Elizabeth Warren's office, that included tax identification numbers, email addresses and phone numbers. Finer details, such as the expiration dates for credit cards or issuing states for driver's licenses, were also included in the list.

The House passed the bill 4 hours ago and the bill was signed into law about an hour ago.

It turns out the Tax Extenders Bill was attached to the to the Budget Bill currently in front of the Senate without mention or discussion! Film at 11

According to ATX, it's undergoing testing and awaiting appproval

Posted this morning by ATXWendi: "You may want to call into customer support to have them address this issue. The section 179 limits have likely been dropped from Fixed Assets. If you are comfortable, this KB link from last year gives the steps to correct the issue (substitute 2017 in place of 2016), but it involves deleting program files so they can be re-downloaded. These are the steps customer service will do for you if you call in. https://support.cch.com/sfs/solution/000057508 Alternatively, you can type in the limits, but they will then be treated as overrides and may not update if we have to issue updates (which happens as the states legislate in the spring). The limits are in Fixed Assets, Asset Global Settings for federal and then click on the State Calcs tab for the state data."

Actually I did something very similar to that , 5 or 6 years ago. Really nasty divorce, but after I carefully explained it to both of them, they were both OK with it.

Just start removing letters from the end of the name until the efile is allowed. I have never had a problem with truncating a last name.

Just received all of my 1099 acks that I transmitted back on the 24th.

Posted by ATXWendi today: "The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act changed bonus depreciation to 100% for qualified assets placed in service after 9/27/207 (before that date it will remain 50%). In the current program version 50% is the default for all 2017 dates. A program update will come out in a week or two that will properly default to 100% for the appropriate dates. The message is a warning that the current program version is using 50% for all 2017 dates and has not been updated to default to 100% when date appropriate. The tax act also provided an election to for assets placed in service after 9/27/2017 to elect to use 50% bonus depreciation instead of 100%. If you want to use 50% for assets after 9/27/2017, there is an election on the elections form that has to be manually marked" Looks like it be another week or two before ATX has a fully functional 4562.

One other thing, since I have switched to gmail for business and outlook for personal, the number of junk and scam emails has dropped to almost zero.

I just use the Windows free firewall and anti virus program as my active security. Then I use Malwarebytes as a passive backup. Different security programs are good at different things so there isn't any one program that will catch everything. As different people have said many times, the best defense is you. I don't use my business computer for anything personal plus the only searching I do are business related so that limits my exposure significantly.

Still waiting for acks on the 1099s I transmitted on the 24th.

Doesn't the scholarship have to be unrestricted allowing you to apply the scholarship toward non qualifying expenses for you to do this ? Be sure to find out how much was spent for books and materials, which in some cases could include a computer.

It's part of the tax extenders bill currently sitting in the Senate. The House has shown little interest in passing the bill. Probably the only chance of the extenders bill passing is if the Senate attaches it to the CR on February 8th, when we face the next government shutdown. Also included in the bill are: 1. College tuition and fees deduction 2. Forgiveness of Home Mortgage Debt Cancellation Income 3. Home Energy Credits 4. Electric Vehicle Credits 5. A long list of special interest provisions for NASCAR & etc.

If I remember correctly, this issue arose last in more than one place in the ATX software and the workaround was to enter .0001

Posted on the ATX Bog 1 hour ago: "Some customers are experiencing intermittent interruptions with the EFC. We are investigating the issue. Please save any work in-progress"

According to an article that I read recently, the National Average Fee for these two returns ( w/o Tax Planning ) was $273 and $ 176.

The Senate Finance Committee is pushing to pass the extenders. However the House is showing little or no interest. Likely the only way it passes is if the Senate attaches it to next CR on February 8th.